1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of compensating for the deterioration of a luminescable medium in a sensor that determines information related to one or more analytes in a body of gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sensors including a luminescable medium that measure one or more aspects of the luminescence of the luminescable medium in order to determine information related to an analyte in a body of gas in contact with the luminescable medium are known. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,325,978; 6,632,402; 6,616,896 and 6,815,211, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference, all disclose an example of such a sensor that uses luminescence quenching to determine the concentration of a gas, such as oxygen, in the gas flowing through a sample cell.
Typically, over time, the accuracy of these luminescence based sensors is degraded by deterioration of the luminescable medium due to photo-bleaching, radical formation, and/or other phenomena. Without relatively frequent calibration and/or relatively frequent replacement of the luminescable medium, conventional sensors of this type may be unreliable due to this degradation. Other drawbacks associated with the deterioration of the luminescable medium also exist.